The Liberal Democrats have experienced a surge in members since last week’s disastrous election, with more than 5,000 people joining the party.

A new leader of the Lib Dems will be announced on July 16, with former party president Tim Farron and ex-health minister Norman Lamb the immediate front-runners.

The party saw its number of MPs plummet to eight and it lost two of its three Welsh seats but the membership figures provided a rare morale boost for activists. There are now more than 50,000 members.

South Wales West AM Peter Black said: “I think people have seen what Liberal Democrats did in Government, keeping the Tories in check. They can see that now the Tories have got [an] open goal in which they can pursue their right-wing agenda and many of them feel they want to give the Liberal Democrats that boost to keep on fighting, I guess.

“I’m going to ring as many new members as I can next week to talk to them myself to find out what their motives are.”

Liberal Democrat AM Peter Black: 'Liberalism is not dead'

He noted that a “lot of them joined before Nick Clegg resigned” so the boost was not simply a reaction to his departure.

Mr Black said: “It’s a resurgence of people who feel the Liberal Democrats were hard-done-by and they want us to fight back against what happened on Thursday...

“It gives me hope. This shows that liberalism is not dead in this country and that we are the only party that can fly that flag and people recognise that and are coming over to us now.”

Addressing the lessons that need to be learned ahead of the 2016 Assembly election, he said: “I don’t think the party itself in this general election campaign had the clear messages. We were basically saying, ‘Vote for us so we can go into coalition’...

“I think we need clearer messages about what we want to achieve and I think we need to get those messages across early.”

Norman Lamb, a former health minister, is considered a front-runner to succeed Nick Clegg

He has not decided whom he wants to lead the party in Westminster but said: “I think the two contenders have got to be Norman Lamb and Tim Farron. They both have things going for them, different strengths.

“Norman Lamb is, I think, a man of substance and experience, who will go down well with lots of people. But Tim Farron is more of an evangelist and he’s got charisma.